Mark Hittner is an

American football official In gridiron football, an official is a person who has responsibility in enforcing the rules and maintaining the order of the game. During professional and most college football games, seven officials operate on the field. Since 2015, Division I ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) since the beginning of the

1997 NFL season The 1997 NFL season was the 78th regular season of the National Football League. The Oilers relocated from Houston, Texas to Nashville, Tennessee. The newly renamed Tennessee Oilers played their home games during this season at the Liberty Bowl ...

. He works as a head linesman and wears the uniform number 28. He is most notable for officiating in three

Super Bowls The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

, most recently in

Super Bowl XL Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion f ...

on February 5, 2006 between the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

and

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

. Hittner played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Pittsburg State University Pittsburg State University (Pitt State or PSU) is a public university in Pittsburg, Kansas. It enrolls approximately 7,400 students (6,000 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students) and is a member of the Kansas Board of Regents. History P ...

Pittsburg, Kansas Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, Kansas, United States, located in southeast Kansas near the Missouri state border. It is the most populous city in Crawford County and southeast Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...

from 1976 to 1979 where he was an all-conference

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

in 1978-79 and is the school's second-leading career passer in yards (4,830). Hittner was a college football official in the Big Eight/Big 12 Conference for 13 years prior to joining the NFL in 1997. He worked the first Big 12 championship game at the

Trans World Dome The Dome at America's Center is a multi-purpose stadium used for concerts, major conventions, and sporting events in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Previously known as the Trans World Dome from 1995 to 2001 and the Edward Jones Do ...

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

in 1996, won by the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

over the

Nebraska Cornhuskers The Nebraska Cornhuskers (often abbreviated to Huskers) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference, and the Cornhuskers compete in NCAA Divis ...

, 37-27. In the NFL, Hittner has officiated eight post-season assignments including Super Bowls XXXVI,

XXXVIII 38 (thirty-eight) is the natural number following 37 (number), 37 and preceding 39 (number), 39. In mathematics *38! − 1 yields which is the 16th factorial prime. *There is no answer to the equation Euler's totient function, φ(''x'') = 38, ma ...

, and XL, in addition to two wild-card, one divisional, and two conference championship games. For the

2017 NFL season The 2017 NFL season was the 98th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL) and the 52nd of the Super Bowl era. The season began on September 7, 2017, with Kansas City defeating defending Super Bowl LI champion New England in ...

, Hittner was the down judge on the officiating crew headed by referee

Craig Wrolstad Craig Wrolstad (born September 5, 1965) is an American football official in the National Football League (NFL) since the 2003 NFL season, wearing uniform number 4. As an official in the NFL, Wrolstad is known for working Super Bowl XLVII in 2 ...

. He worked with referee Ed Hochuli from the

2000 NFL season The 2000 NFL season was the 81st regular season of the National Football League. The season ended with Super Bowl XXXV when the Baltimore Ravens defeated the New York Giants, 34–7, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Week 1 of the s ...

to the 2013 NFL season. Outside of his NFL officiating duties, Hittner owns a financial services company in the

Kansas City Metropolitan Area The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more th ...

. He is married and has three sons.

Super Bowl XL

Hittner was the head linesman on the

officiating crew headed by referee

Bill Leavy Bill Leavy (pronounced LEE-vee; born February 13, 1947) is a retired American football official who officiated in the National Football League (NFL) from the 1995 through 2014 seasons, wore uniform number 127, and is also a retired San Jose, Cali ...

. Hittner made a touchdown call in the second quarter with two minutes remaining in the first half. On third down from the Seattle one-yard line, Pittsburgh

Ben Roethlisberger Benjamin Todd Roethlisberger Sr. (; born March 2, 1982), nicknamed "Big Ben", is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college footba ...

took the snap, faked a handoff, and dove toward the left side of a pile along the goal-line before being hit by Seahawks

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

D.D. Lewis. After first raising one hand (as if to indicate that the quarterback was down), Hittner raised a second arm to signal a touchdown. The play stood after instant replay review. Hittner later said that it "was probably the closest goal-line call" he'd ever had. He says he "thought 'touchdown' in my head, and then I went up with one arm, which means the play is over, but I should have gone with two arms."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hittner, Mark Living people College football officials National Football League officials Pittsburg State Gorillas football players Year of birth missing (living people)